Posts Categorized: Something to make you smile

Edinburgh City Council might have been spending too much time on Instagram.

In dealing with an appeal against the refusal of listed building consent for a loft conversion (DCS Number 400-021-104) the reporter remarked that “The mainly glazed infill of the inward-facing roof valley would not be likely to be visible from the wider conservation area, apart from within the appeal property. Although I note the council’s comment that this aspect of the works would, if undertaken, be seen in aerial photographs, I do not regard that as equating to an adverse effect on the character of the conservation area.”

An inspector has granted retrospective planning permission for a treehouse at a house in Hampshire after disagreeing with the council that it was a highly visible, obtrusive and incongruous feature (DCS Number 400-020-057).

There is always talk about how roads and traffic cut the heart out of our towns and villages. Perhaps that’s why an inspector with a sharp tongue made this incisive observation when putting a proposal for eight dwellings in Nottinghamshire under the microscope: “The proposed site access would be taken directly from Mansfield Road (A60) which dissects the settlement.” (DCS Number 400-019-373).

Readers might be aware that Ed Sheeran’s plans to build a private chapel on his Suffolk estate were set back due to the possibility of there being great crested newts on the site. He’s not on his own – a proposal for an otherwise satisfactory family dwelling in Cheshire was turned down at appeal because it would result in the loss of GCN terrestrial habitat (DCS Number 400-019-111).

We hesitate to contradict an inspector but we feel we must comment on a ruling involving three superheroes in Warwickshire. This appeal was against a listed building enforcement notice which required the removal of Batman, Superman and Spiderman from the front elevation of a bar and restaurant (DCS Number 400-018-962). Batman and Superman were standing on a recess above the fascia at first floor level and Spiderman was climbing up the wall.

An inspector has sided with a council in Cambridgeshire in the reading of a handwritten dimension on a plan relating to planning permission for the change of use of agricultural land to garden land (DCS Number 400-018-548).

A first floor extension to a building used as a money exchange abutting a railway embankment in the west Midlands has been refused permission by an inspector (DCS Number 400-018-516).

The inspector stated “The proposal would sit in very close proximity to the railway. In the absence of any appropriate structural information it is unclear how the development would impact on the stability of the adjoining railway infrastructure as a result of increased loads that would be created by the development. In the absence of such information, and in light of explicit concerns from Network Rail I cannot be satisfied that the development would not harm the stability and safe operation of the railway.”

A "net health gain" principle should be embedded in national planning policy to ensure that new developments do not contribute to the problem of air pollution, a report by government agency Public Health England has recommended.

The government's Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS), which sets the policy framework for the expansion of Heathrow airport, should be "set aside and reconsidered" if it is found to be legally flawed, the High Court has been told on the first day of a legal challenge against the airport's expansion.

Plans have been approved for 1,500 homes on an employment site in Salford Quays, including a tower of up to 46 storeys, after officers concluded the development would not compromise neighbouring employment uses.

Plans have been approved for a mixed-use scheme with over 1,100 homes on a site currently used as a retail park off London's Old Kent Road, after planners concluded that the scheme's negative impacts, including the loss of retail space, would be compensated for by "major regeneration benefits".

The government has said it will "robustly defend" itself against a legal challenge which is seeking to have the approval for the expansion of Heathrow airport sent back to Parliament for reconsideration, as the case opens at the High Court today.

The High Court has upheld an inspector's ruling that the size of an area of hard-standing at a fencing company's yard in Surrey was so far in excess of what was required by a building on the site as to render it not ancillary to the building.